Wireless sensor-actuator network (WSAN) technology is gaining rapid adoption in process industries because of its advantages in lowering deployment and maintenance cost in challenging environments. While early success of industrial WSANs has been recognized, significant potential remains in exploring WSANs as unified networks for industrial plants.
This thesis research explores a cyber-physical co-design approach to design wireless control systems. To enable holistic studies of wireless control systems, we have developed the Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator (WCPS), an integrated co-simulation environment that integrates Simulink and our implementation of WSANs based on the industrial WirelessHART standard. We further develop novel WSAN protocols tailored for advanced control designs for networked control systems. WCPS now works as the first simulator that features both linear and nonlinear physical plant models, state-of-art WirelessHART protocol stack, and realistic wireless network characteristics. A realistic wireless structural control study sheds light on the challenges of WSC and the limitations of a traditional structural control approach under realistic wireless conditions. Systematic emergency control results demonstrate that our real-time emergency communication approach enables timely emergency handling, while allowing regular feedback control loops to effectively share resources in WSANs during normal operations. A co-joint study of wireless routing and control highlights the importance of the co-design approach of wireless networks and control.
","abstract_html":"<p>Wireless sensor-actuator network (WSAN) technology is gaining rapid adoption in process industries because of its advantages in lowering deployment and maintenance cost in challenging environments. While early success of industrial WSANs has been recognized, significant potential remains in exploring WSANs as unified networks for industrial plants.</p><p>This thesis research explores a cyber-physical co-design approach to design wireless control systems. To enable holistic studies of wireless control systems, we have developed the Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator (WCPS), an integrated co-simulation environment that integrates Simulink and our implementation of WSANs based on the industrial WirelessHART standard. We further develop novel WSAN protocols tailored for advanced control designs for networked control systems. WCPS now works as the first simulator that features both linear and nonlinear physical plant models, state-of-art WirelessHART protocol stack, and realistic wireless network characteristics. A realistic wireless structural control study sheds light on the challenges of WSC and the limitations of a traditional structural control approach under realistic wireless conditions. Systematic emergency control results demonstrate that our real-time emergency communication approach enables timely emergency handling, while allowing regular feedback control loops to effectively share resources in WSANs during normal operations. A co-joint study of wireless routing and control highlights the importance of the co-design approach of wireless networks and control.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Li, Bo"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Computer Science & Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Chenyang Lu","Roger Chamberlain, Christopher Gill, Humberto Gonzalez, Roch Guerin, Abusayeed Saifullah"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-12-15T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-12-15T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:31Z","subjects":["Co-design","Control","Cyber-Physical Systems","WirelessHART","Wireless Sensor Network","WSAN","Engineering"],"languages":["English (en)"],"rights":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/133"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/133","href":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/133","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7V40SG5","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Chenyang Lu","Roger Chamberlain, Christopher Gill, Humberto Gonzalez, Roch Guerin, Abusayeed Saifullah"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Li, Bo"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-12-15T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Computer Science & Engineering","McKelvey School of Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Co-design","Control","Cyber-Physical Systems","WirelessHART","Wireless Sensor Network","WSAN","Engineering"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English (en)"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7V40SG5","https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/133"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7V40SG5"]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Wireless sensor-actuator network (WSAN) technology is gaining rapid adoption in process industries because of its advantages in lowering deployment and maintenance cost in challenging environments. While early success of industrial WSANs has been recognized, significant potential remains in exploring WSANs as unified networks for industrial plants.
This thesis research explores a cyber-physical co-design approach to design wireless control systems. To enable holistic studies of wireless control systems, we have developed the Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator (WCPS), an integrated co-simulation environment that integrates Simulink and our implementation of WSANs based on the industrial WirelessHART standard. We further develop novel WSAN protocols tailored for advanced control designs for networked control systems. WCPS now works as the first simulator that features both linear and nonlinear physical plant models, state-of-art WirelessHART protocol stack, and realistic wireless network characteristics. A realistic wireless structural control study sheds light on the challenges of WSC and the limitations of a traditional structural control approach under realistic wireless conditions. Systematic emergency control results demonstrate that our real-time emergency communication approach enables timely emergency handling, while allowing regular feedback control loops to effectively share resources in WSANs during normal operations. A co-joint study of wireless routing and control highlights the importance of the co-design approach of wireless networks and control.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Cyber-Physical Co-Design of Wireless Control Systems"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Chenyang Lu","Roger Chamberlain, Christopher Gill, Humberto Gonzalez, Roch Guerin, Abusayeed Saifullah"],"dc:creator":["Li, Bo"],"dc:date.available":["2015-12-15T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7V40SG5"],"dc:description.abstract":["Wireless sensor-actuator network (WSAN) technology is gaining rapid adoption in process industries because of its advantages in lowering deployment and maintenance cost in challenging environments. While early success of industrial WSANs has been recognized, significant potential remains in exploring WSANs as unified networks for industrial plants.
This thesis research explores a cyber-physical co-design approach to design wireless control systems. To enable holistic studies of wireless control systems, we have developed the Wireless Cyber-Physical Simulator (WCPS), an integrated co-simulation environment that integrates Simulink and our implementation of WSANs based on the industrial WirelessHART standard. We further develop novel WSAN protocols tailored for advanced control designs for networked control systems. WCPS now works as the first simulator that features both linear and nonlinear physical plant models, state-of-art WirelessHART protocol stack, and realistic wireless network characteristics. A realistic wireless structural control study sheds light on the challenges of WSC and the limitations of a traditional structural control approach under realistic wireless conditions. Systematic emergency control results demonstrate that our real-time emergency communication approach enables timely emergency handling, while allowing regular feedback control loops to effectively share resources in WSANs during normal operations. A co-joint study of wireless routing and control highlights the importance of the co-design approach of wireless networks and control.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7V40SG5","https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/eng_etds/133"],"dc:language":["English (en)"],"dc:rights":["I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to."],"dc:subject":["Co-design","Control","Cyber-Physical Systems","WirelessHART","Wireless Sensor Network","WSAN","Engineering"],"dc:title":["Cyber-Physical Co-Design of Wireless Control Systems"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Computer Science & Engineering","McKelvey School of Engineering"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:31Z"}